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geomorphology, soils and hydrology, forestry, and land capability for more than
120,000 square kilometers in the central agricultural area of the country. In
addition, sub-surface studies for minerals and petroleum were made using airborne
geophysical methods. Although the various work elements that make up the Project
in Chile have been used in other countries, nowhere have these elements been com
bined in a single survey on such a broad scale as in Chile.
Through the use of photographic and photogrammetric techniques and methods,
the vast amount of information which was gathered and verified in a period of 40
months could not have been obtained in a lifetime of work using conventional ground
survey and exploration methods. Photogrammetrists know of the great advances in
equipment and methods. It is essential to demonstrate to government leaders, to
ministers and policy makers, to the economists, planners, industrialists, and
engineers the enlarged capabilities of our art and science to provide them with
vital basic resource data. It is important to point out that this work requires
the careful guidance of thoroughly qualified experts to plan, direct and supervise
the essential steps required for the successful execution of a resource inventory
program.
The Project in Chile, known as Proyecto Aerofotogrametrico-Chile was
sponsored and financed by the joint efforts of the Organization of American States
(OAS), the Government of Chile, and the Inter-American Development Bank. The work
was accomplished by a consortium of four photogrammetric engineering companies,
(Aero Service Corporation of Philadelphia; Fairchild Aerial Surveys of Los Angeles;
Geotechnics and Resources of White Plains, New York; and Hunting Survey Corporation
of Toronto, Canada) working in collaboration with Chilean scientists and
technicians. The program was designed as a team effort to provide the Government
of Chile with essential basic data needed for initial stages of reconstruction and
rehabilitation of earthquake-damaged cities, for programs of land reform and taxa
tion revision, and for projects as yet unplanned in the fields of transportation,
power, irrigation, agricultural development and urban renewal. In accomplishing
these objectives the project provided a broad inventory of natural resources to